The Aftermath
by Liva Jane
Summary: Drama free GS WIP. I can't say much without ruining the beginning.
1. what's going on?

**CHAPTER ONE;** what's going on?

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Disclaimer: I own nothing. CSI owns me.

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Normally Catherine wasn't too excited about going to work. She loved her job. Of course. But it wasn't as if she couldn't find anything better to do with her time.

Today was different though. She was awfully energized and impatient, and only regarded Warrick with a loud "later!" when she hastily rounded the corner after he asked her about last night's party..

She quickly opened the door to Grissom's office with a loud "haaal.. DAMN!". He wasn't there. He wasn't so big a coward that he'd call in sick.. was he? She figured he would most likely rather get hit in the head with a spade than come in to work, but that his pride wouldn't allow him to stay away..

She spotted him walking nervously round in circles in the break room and laughed to herself as she walked hurriedly in there. "Haaaallooooo". The grin on her face couldn't possibly get any bigger as Grissom's shoulders quite visibly tensed and he stopped his wandering.

He dropped his head. "Don't start with me.." he said quietly even though he new it didn't matter what he said at this point.

"Hey! I'm just saying hallo!" she said, but Grissom merely rolled his eyes when he saw the smirk on her face.

"Eh, Catherine – what's going on?" Warrick asked as he entered the room, obviously quite puzzled by Catherine's behaviour.

"Maybe you should ask Grissom," she grinned

"NOTHING is going on," Grissom quickly spat out, a little surprised by his reaction himself.

"Well.. I don't know about that - I'd say th.." Catherine started, but was quickly interrupted when an unusually smug-looking Hodges entered the room too.

"Oh God" Grissom sighed, starting to rub his temples. Had he not already pinched himself more times than he could count he would be convinced that it was a nightmare.

His insane headache wasn't exactly helpful, and he was now wondering whether or not faking his own death could get him out of the situation.

He settled on no, though. It wasn't as if Cath and Warrick hadn't been around dead bodies before and he wasn't very good at holding his breath either.

Warrick was looking from one person to another, clearly confused – "Does ANYONE want to tell me what's going on?"

"Of cooourse" Catherine said, still grinning in direction of Grissom. "Let me just give you my.. eh.. version of what happened and then maybe we can hear Grissom's afterwards!"

Grissom didn't answer but just hit the coffee maker, for being too damned slow, but Catherine never really expected an answer so she continued, "well, last night at the Christmas party.. – It was boring, the band sucked, the liquor was bad - but free - and it was only Grissom, Greg, Sara and I who was there, since the rest of you were working, and I honest to God thought Sara and Grissom had left long ago.. eh..! ..SO I was talking to Greg about something I will bet good money that he cannot remember, after the amount of body-tequilas he was doing with some girl - red hair, glasses - someone that could be the definition of 'what any man dreads to wake up next to'.." ((A/N: I have red hair and glasses, I'm allowed to write that without getting bitch-slapped ;) ))

"Could you get to the point" Warrick asked, "or was that the point – Greg got drunk!"

"Nooo.." Catherine smirked, "when I was trying to get through to Greg I spot Sara running through the room like a bat out of hell, obviously overly excited about something, and oooobviously very, very drunk dragging a equally excited, equally drunk Grissom after her"

Warrick raised his eyebrows in his boss' direction, and Grissom decided to skip the coffee and go hide in his office, for the last 4 minutes till shift started.

"aand..eh!" Catherine half-asked, before remembering where she was and continuing her story, "SO, they come over and say that they want to show is something REALLY funny, and guess what they do..!"

Both Catherine and Hodges starts laughing, but Warrick is getting impatient, "WHAT!"

"They start KISSING! And I mean – they weren't _just_ kissing, they were _all over_ each other. Seriously. It was so bad I had to cover poor Greg's eyes.. not that I think he ever really noticed that something happened.. _but still_!"

--

Grissom heard the howl of laughter coming from the break room, and assumed Catherine had gotten to the point of her story. He downed two more aspirins, and glanced at the watch. Shit, he had to get out there.

When walking towards the break room again he heard Nick shout "have you heard?" as he got there. Greg was taking a 'personal day' – which btw had to be written down on the list of most stupid words for being hung-over. Sara hadn't called and he hadn't seen her anywhere even though she'd normally be in at least an hour before the shift started. But then again – today was probably going to be the most _ab_normal day ever.

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_Shit_

Sara quite literally fell out of bed when she realized what time it was.

_Fuck, I'm going to be late, and FUCK my head hurts.._

--

_And what the FUCK did I do last night! Shit shit shit._

_No I didn't. I couldn't possibly have done that. HE couldn't possibly have done that. Okay it's settled, we didn't do that. Of course we didn't._

A little more at ease she went to the bathroom, turned on the shower and hurriedly took her clothe of – it did however only last about 10 seconds, till she got a look at the giant hickey on her neck.

_No no no_. Suddenly everything came back to her. It was all too stupid that she could help but laugh, until she realized that she had to call Grissom to tell him she would be late and she started to sob instead. _What did I think – What did HE think? What is he thinking about now? Does he regret it? Does he remember it? Did he like it?_

_I need to call him. I HAVE to call him. I'm going to..._

--

"Grissom"

"Hi. It's me.. eh, Sara.."

"Oh. Hi."

The others started to laugh uncontrollably when they realized it was Sara on the phone. It had actually been bearable handing out assignments, they had of course giggled the entire time, but he ignored it right until Catherine started asking if he wanted to see something REALLY funny and he had actually thought the phone call could be his way out – if only he had checked caller ID first..

"Eh. I guess they know." She said, banging her head against the wall for not having anything to say, "ANYWAY, I'm going to be a little late – I am.. eh.. late."

"Okay.." He said, leaving the break room, filled with now howling co-workers who wasn't helping on the awkward situation, "ehmm, if you don't feel well – don't come. As you heard they are not very discreet about it, and.. I don't know..."

"It's okay.. I guess.. but eh,.."

"Yes?" he asked, biting his lip

"Could we talk first? I mean I know we are talking.. but eh.."

"Of course" he interrupted, "You know what, I feel as if my head has been run over by a car, so I'll probably be in my office doing paperwork so just come see me when you get here.. – and besides I am, in no possible way, going to be able to work with any of those hyenas,"

She didn't answer but he could sense she was smiling.

"Ok" he continued nervously, "just.. take your time.. bye"

He hung up before he could say anymore. He felt as if it was him who was over-talking now.

_What did I think – What did SHE think? What is she thinking about now? Is she thinking about me? About how awful it was.. Or about how incredible it was?_

To be continued.. of course ;)


	2. getting clear

**CHAPTER TWO;** getting clear

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Disclaimer: I own nothing. CSI owns me.

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Before knocking on the door Sara briefly glanced at her watch, and was surprised to see she was only an hour and 20 minutes late. She took a deep breath and knocked lightly three times, before slowly opening the door.

She was almost afraid to look at him, but didn't actually have to worry since he was sleeping.

It was a little odd seeing him like that, and considered leaving again, but heard Catherine and Nick laughing somewhere. Not particularly interested in finding out what they where laughing at she quickly got in and closed the door after her.

She looked at him for a couple of seconds, wondering how he felt about the whole ordeal, but was a little scared he'd wake up and find her starring at him so she, once again, took a deep breath and walked over to him. She took the chair from the other side of the table and placed it next to Grissom's, since she thought the conversation they were going to have was going to be even more awkward across the supervisor-table.

She sat down and after a couple of seconds' hesitation she mildly shook his shoulder and whispered his name. He woke up rather quickly and seemed startled to see her there. Sara sensed he was quite uncomfortable so she cautiously moved her chair a little bit away from him and send him a smile.

When he remembered their 'situation' he was about to panick, but told himself to take it easy and nervously smiled back at her.

For a couple of seconds the room was filled with uncomfortable silence, but Sara simply took his hand and said:

"Look, I thought about it. Or I didn't.. because I was really too upset to think after hearing the.. reaction.. to this, but if I had in fact thought about it I think I would have realized that, eh.. I don't want to freak out about this, and I think you don't want to either. I, ehm, know this is complicated and that we shouldn't do anything.. more.. about it – but I want you to know that I'm okay with it, and.." she looked down, "I don't regret it.. I mean, it _was_ quite fun!"

They both smiled nervously, but still didn't dare to look at each other. Sara was actually quite amazed of how easy it had been to talk to him, and was simply shocked of how calm he was being.

She looked at him for a split second, got up and tried to let his hand go, but he held on to it, "look." He grinned tensely when he thought about all the times he had started a sentence like that when talking about this particular subject, "ehm, thank you.. for being honest, and eh, I was thinking I might go out on a limb here and do the same.."

He closed his eyes, mentally slapping himself for being so inarticulate around her, but when he looked at her he saw she was smiling encouragingly, so he went on:

"I am – believe it or not – okay with it too.. I think? ... I mean, I'm not okay with the laughing and the howling and the 'wanna see something REALLY funny'-comments.. but I'm okay with what happened between us. The parts I remember, that is.."

They were both silent for a couple of seconds. Sara was digesting what he'd said, and wondering if she should ask him that question or it would ruin everything. She decided that she might as well get it all out there:

"Exactly how much do you remember?" She bit her lip, hoping he remembered everything.

"What do you mean?"

"What I said – how much do you remember?"

He was still a little confused but answered nonetheless, "Most of the evening is a blur, but I think I got the big.. picture." He smiled, but she was looking down so he thought he'd try to lighten her mood, "you know, I do however remember that at the time I thought it was the most brilliant idea ever, and I was really stunned that we'd never thought of it before"

Sara grinned as she remembered thinking something quite similar, but tried putting on a straight face again, even though she wasn't sure how well she managed.

"You know the reason I asked is that ehm," she said slowly, "we didn't exactly.. you know, stick to the kissing." She could feel herself blushing and started fidgeting with her hands, not daring to look up on him.

"I mean, we didn't.. have sex.. but eh, God knows we, uhm, tried." She looked up and saw how shocked he was and thought it couldn't get any worse so she spilled it: "but we didn't really eh, succeed – or.. you didn't really succeed.."

She couldn't help laughing a little at his stunned expression, and grabbed his hand again, after it somehow slipped away from hers during their conversation.

He finally realized that it was actually quite funny, but couldn't look at her so he dropped his head and chuckled silently.

"It's okay, Griss – you know.. it's only.. me. You can trust me" She smiled and took her other hand and lifted his chin so she could see his eyes and then removed the hand quickly as she didn't want him to freak out.

He looked at her briefly, but then shook his head, "It is not even a little funny and I'm sorry, but I don't think I could be more embarrassed if the entire lab knew"

"Well, maybe we should test that!" she started to get up, but he pulled her down again quickly and once again they laughed tensely, but finally able to look in each others eyes.

They were both silent for some time, but it wasn't uncomfortable at all.

He was the first to speak, which surprised Sara, but actually mostly himself, "I know I can trust you .. and ehm, even though I might not be as much at ease with the new.. information.. that you have given me, I am still not, eh, upset about what happened.. ..but you are right, no matter how tempting it actually is we shouldn't – pursue this, it's too complicated."

Amazed by hearing him admit that he was tempted she blurted out "I never said we shouldn't pursue it"

"yes you did, two minutes ago"

Embarrassed by her somewhat desperate out-burst she started fidgeting again, "do you tape everything I say?"

"Eh no" he said confused, "you said it like – yes, two minutes ago"

"Sorry, it's just something you sa.. Never mind. I, uhm, gotta get startet.." She glanced at her watch realizing they had been talking for way too long. She squeezed his hand one last time before slowly walking out of his office.

"we shouldn't do anything.. more.. about it" she said quietly, in a mocking voice "idiot!"

Grissom wasn't quite sure if he was supposed to hear that, but smirked silently nonetheless until he remembered what she'd just told him and went back to being embarrassed.

To be continued..


	3. not that bad

**CHAPTER THREE;** not that bad

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Disclaimer: I own nothing. CSI owns me.

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Grissom quite literally threw himself down in a chair in the break room.

"How are you doing?" It was Catherine. She was sitting next to him, going through some report, but as always she wasn't particularly interested in that.

At first he was about to give her a 'shut up' but managed to recognize the sincerity behind her question just in time.

"I've done better." He said after a while

"Uhm, I know it's none of my business, but have you talked to Sara?"

"As if you've ever cared what is your business and what's not and yes – I have talked to her" he said quickly, but regretted his harsh tone, gave her a smile and a "sorry".

She shrugged her shoulders, "it's okay.. what did you say? And what did _she_ say?"

"Ehm, different things.."

"Different things! Interesting."

"I don't know! ..we_ are_ okay, though"

"Are you sure? Is she okay too, or do you just assume she is? You know.." she started, but was interrupted by a grisly-looking Sara in search for coffee.

Catherine smirked, and was out of the room in about two seconds winking knowingly to an insanely annoyed Grissom

"Let me guess – she said you should talk to me, and when you said you had she assumed you'd screwed it up" she said purring coffee in a large mug.

"Something like that" he said, smiling. "But I wouldn't say it's not an educated guess of what could have happened".

She smiled, shrugged and slowly opened her mouth to say something, but was cut short by Grissom.

"And you are sure you're okay..?"

"Yes I am"

"Good .. I, uhm.."

"What?" she sighed

He grinned, "I was just thinking about.. the _thing_ you claimed happened.."

"The thing I _claimed_ happened?"

"Well do you have any evidence that can support your theory – or any witnesses for that matter?"

"Myself? .. and I'm not sure if this counts.." she rolled down her turtleneck blouse to reveal the giant hickey she'd discovered the same morning.

At first he was a sceptic, not really agreeing that a hickey could prove anything, but then he burst out in laughter.

"What?" she grinned

"I gave you a hickey?" he asked sarcastically "A hickey? I don't think I've done that since 5th grade – and even that the girl was pissed".

"Well, either that or I.. fell?"

They both laughed a little and Grissom got up and studied it closer. When he lightly toughed her neck she shivered, but tried to hide it with a big smile as he looked at her. He gently let go again and looked down on the floor.

"Exactly how bad was it?" he said quietly, "and what happened.. exactly? I mean, I don't want the embarrassing details. Hell no. But I mean; when, where, who and why?"

"It wasn't so bad. Again.. it was quite funny and.. well, it wasn't so bad" she gave him a sincere smile and continued, "it was last night, surprise, I have absolutely no idea of when exactly and it was in the men's bathroom at the second floor"

"classy" he interrupted sarcastically

"Indeed, and don't worry. Nobody saw us getting out. I think! Anyway, I guess you know who, I _hope_ you know who – and why? I don't know. We were both drunk, we had fun and I think we figured it was the appropriate thing to do after taking our clothes of"

He laughed loudly at her last comment, but stopped again just as quickly.

"And ehm, it wasn't _your fault_ – in case you were wondering" she looked down at her toes, " I may have used the situation – a little"

"That must have been quite the disappointment, huh?" he said sardonically

"Not really. As I said; not too bad. The only thing I'm disappointed with is the fact that you cannot remember it" their eyes finally met

"I'm really sort of disappointed too" he said gently, "it's not every day I get to kiss a Sara Sidle" he gave her hand a gentle squeeze and then turned around and walked out of the break room. Leaving Sara alone cursing violently about why he always did that to her.

Yet she couldn't help but smile..

To be continued


	4. getting away

**CHAPTER FOUR;** getting away

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Disclaimer: I own nothing. CSI owns me.

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As Grissom paired them the next morning there was, of course, some giggling from the others, despite the fact that Sara was the only one not occupied with another case – but as the other realized how calmly they were both reacting to the childish teasing they let it go.

Now they were working in the layout room, looking through some clothes found at the scene, hoping to find something helpful.

"So, what are you doing for Christmas?" Grissom asked after several minutes of silence.

"I'm not sure – I usually volunteer at a shelter near my apartment, but I haven't signed up yet" she answered, not looking up, partly because she was occupied with the work but mainly because she didn't want to draw more attention than necessarily to the fact that she didn't have any family to spend the holidays with.

Grissom mentally slapped himself, forgetting that it probably wasn't Sara's favourite time of year, but continued as an idea popped into his head. An awfully stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless.

"What about afterwards?"

"I don't know" she answered embarrassedly

"Well, I was just thinking.." he started nervously "that maybe you'd.. ehm, not that volunteering isn't great – because I know it is.. but, it's just" he closed his eyes for a few seconds, hating how stupid he sounded all of a sudden.

"What?" she asked half smirking, obviously enjoying seeing Grissom, who'd normally be clear and calm, struggling to just make sense.

"WouldyouspendChristmaswithme?" he blurted out, surprising both of them "I mean.. not.. I'm going to visit my mother in California and even though it's nice to see her it can get a bit.. well, boring.. being just the two of us.."

They were both silent. Grissom was looking directly at Sara, quite proud of his own openness, and Sara was studying her shoes – not because she didn't know how to answer his question but because she didn't want to seem too eager to answer him.

She took a deep breath and looked up at him, suddenly realizing how close they were. "Sure..!" she said slowly

"Sure?"

"Sure."

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Sitting on the plane Sara was still not able to comprehend that she was going to spend 3 days alone with Grissom. Not only was it weird only a couple of days after they'd been groping each other at the departments Christmas party, but she was still stunned that Grissom would share something as intimate with her as Christmas with his mother and him.

Getting the three days of hadn't exactly been easy, but they'd promised to work at New Years and besides that they both had so much vacation time saved that they didn't have to be back before May.

"You've got to be the slowest reader in the entire universe" she grinned

"I cannot concentrate, when you're staring at me like that" he protested, realizing that for about 20 minutes he'd been staring at the same page.

She smirked, while shrugging her shoulders yet still looking intensely at him, just as he was still pretending to be reading.

"Stop it! Seriously!" he smacked her playfully on the shoulder as she didn't obey.

"Okay" she said, still looking ".. but I'm bored, you know"

"That's not my problem"

They were both silent for a minute or two, her staring, him pretending to read.

"Argh!" he said dramatically closing the book, "what do you want?"

"Talk to me" she said silently, "flying makes me.. restless"

"Yes I noticed. What should we talk about"

"Did you come across some exciting bugs lately?" she deadpanned, making him smile

"Yes, very. Last month I had this body who's face was eaten away by.." Grissom stopped as the woman next to them started to sound like she was getting sick.

"Sorry" Sara said as she saw that Grissom only found it amusing

"You're scaring the normal people" she whispered

He grinned and took out a piece of paper and a pen, knowing that getting as close to Sara Sidle as you had to be to whisper anything on the noise-filled plane would never be a good idea.

_That's what you get for eavesdropping_ he wrote, making her giggle

She took the pen and wrote: _be nice_

_I'm always nice_

_No you're not – particularly when you're cranky_

_I don't get cranky_ he wrote quickly, causing her to laugh loudly

"Well, you're not being very nice either, Sidle" he said mock-seriously, trying desperately not to think about how much he wanted to kiss her smile of her lips. Gosh I should never had asked her to come

"I'm glad I agreed to come with you" she said sincerely

"Me too" he smiled

To be continued..


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